The food is obviously fine, but why do the guests insist on returning it? I believe that most chefs have encountered this problem.

in this case, what should I do? Can it be prevented?

in the eyes of many catering bosses, customers will complain only when the quality of dishes is unstable or unexpected. In fact, sometimes even if there is no problem with the dishes, you will often encounter complaints.

so what kind of customers will have complaints? What is the reason for their complaint? When a complaint appears, how should I deal with it?

in the first case,

non-target customers complain

such customers will complain when they are not suitable for the taste of the dishes in the store.

For example, what you do is southern cuisine, which is known for its light and smooth frying, but the guest who complained is from the north. In this case, in fact, there is nothing wrong with the food itself, but the "taste" is at work.

case 1: customers are non-target customers

for example, a restaurant in Shanghai features Shanghai cuisine, supplemented by Huaiyang cuisine and local cuisine. On one occasion, a table of guests complained that their small yellow croaker and white crab were not fresh, and complained that their dishes were tasteless and asked for a return.

the front office manager has no choice but to ask the head chef for solutions. After the chef asked in detail, he realized that the guests at this table were from Ningbo. People along the coast of Ningbo have heavy tastes. When they say seafood is fresh, they mean seafood is fresh, not "odorless" in the eyes of Shanghainese.

At that time, the transportation conditions were far worse than now. The small yellow croaker and white crab used in that restaurant were all caught in the East China Sea, frozen and then transported to Shanghai, and the chefs could only ensure that they were fresh. Shanghai residents are used to eating such seafood, so no local guests report that seafood is not fresh.

case 2: target customers have changed

there is also a case where good dishes are not suitable for stores.

A chef developed a new dish in his former shop, which was well received by the guests, and the ordering rate increased frequently. Later, he was entrusted with the task of trying out and training branch chefs in other branches. However, the same raw materials and the same cooking method were not well received by customers, but were complained. This situation is a non-target customer complaint.

If there used to be a large number of spicy customers in your store, it may be that the more spicy the dishes, the more customers like them. Even if the customers who don't like spicy food are straight-mouthed, they won't complain because they know that the store is famous for its spicy food.

This kind of guests are psychologically prepared to come to the store for consumption. If the main consumer groups around the store now don't like spicy dishes, copying them as they are is likely to be complained.

most of these customers are foreign guests, who are on the edge of or outside the restaurant's positioning group and are non-target customers of the restaurant.

solution:

since things have happened, we should face them positively. First of all, we should have a correct attitude and allow guests to express their dissatisfaction in a pleasant atmosphere. Chefs must not be impulsive, calmly analyze the truth, find the root cause and properly solve it.

To solve such complaints, the back chef should first communicate with the front desk, and suggest that when they meet similar customers, they should guide them to taste local dishes or things that customers often can't eat.

for the complaints that have occurred, the waiter should explain them clearly to the customers before changing the dishes. If the front room is left unattended, the guests will take it back to the kitchen directly after saying that it is not fresh, which will arouse the contradiction between the front room and the kitchen.

in the latter case, every time a chef goes to a new place, he should tailor the dishes according to the hobbies of special customers in different places, and must not copy the successful experience in the past.

preventive measures:

in fact, these complaints can be avoided as long as certain methods are mastered.

first, strictly locate the target consumer groups according to the location and surrounding environment of the food and beverage outlets. In some hot shops, we can see that the customers who are full of praise for the dishes are definitely the target customers of the store, which requires chefs to develop dishes that meet their tastes according to the characteristics of the target customers, because customers say yes is better than any commercial advertisement. Therefore, the positioning of dishes is crucial.

secondly, the decoration style, commercial advertisements and opening publicity of restaurants, including store signs, should match the dishes they operate. For example, a seafood city should make great efforts to publicize where you are seafood and how fresh it is. Such as a home-cooked dish, then you should publicize the local characteristics, so as to avoid complaints that the customers who come in are not your target customers.

In the second case,

Guests have different tastes

Many chefs may have experienced this case: a dish uses the same raw materials, the same seasoning and the same cooking method, but some people at a table say yes, others say no, or the same person said yes twice before, but this time it feels bad, so complaints appear.

however, after the analysis of the chefs, there is no problem with this dish, so why are there any complaints?

actually, this is the difference in taste.

Case 1: Some people say that it tastes bad, and others follow suit.

A restaurant owner encountered such a thing: one day, five guests came to the restaurant room and ordered some dishes at the suggestion of the waiter. During the meal, the "host" politely asked other guests how the dishes were, and the guests all smiled and said that they felt that the dishes were average.

The "host" felt that the food was far from as good as the waiter had introduced, so he asked the waiter to change it or give a discount.

case 2: the collocation of dishes is related to the composition of customers

a restaurant encountered a complaint from a customer, who said that all the dishes were extremely salty. It happened that the chef was patrolling the front hall, so he went forward to ask. At that time, the dishes on the table had been served, and the chef saw that there were more women at this table, so it was mainly dessert and some hot dishes.

handling method:

in the first case, because of "different opinions", we must first analyze the combination of people at this table, because everyone's age, occupation, gender, cultural accomplishment, personal life habits and so on are different, which may lead to obvious differences in taste (but some people naturally don't like a certain dish, so there is no way), and the main reason for the guests' complaints at this table is because of the host or guests.

in case 2, as long as we glance at the dishes on the guest table, we can find that the root of the complaint is that there are more women at this table, because after eating dessert and drinking juice in advance, the hot dishes served later are too different from the sweet ones eaten before, which gives the customers a salty feeling. In this case, the waiter can make each of them a cup of tea and let them taste it after drinking it, and the problem can be solved.

Precautions:

The key to solving this kind of thing lies in good communication between the front office and the back kitchen. It is best to let the waiter know as much as possible about the customer before ordering.

In addition, the difference of taste varies with the seasons, for example, there are differences such as spicy taste in spring, bitter taste in summer, sour taste in autumn and salty taste in winter. It may also be caused by taste fatigue. For example, if a guest orders the same dish every time he comes, over time, he will feel that this dish is not as delicious as before.

In these two cases, it is easy for customers to complain, so the kitchen should also develop more seasonal dishes and learn more about the taste differences caused by seasonal changes. When seasoning, it should also adjust the taste differences with seasonal changes to continuously meet the changing needs of customers.

The third situation

is the curse of expectation

This factor can be divided into two types. In the first situation, it generally means that a guest has eaten a certain dish in another restaurant, and it feels delicious. It happens that your restaurant also serves this dish, but if there are obvious differences in taste, atmosphere and weight between the two restaurants, the guest may complain that "your dish tastes wrong".

The second situation is price expectation. When a guest orders a dish, he doesn't pay attention to the price of the dish. He just casually says that he wants the dish, only to find that the price of the dish is beyond the psychological price when he pays the bill, and then he will complain on the grounds that the dish tastes bad.

case 1: measure the dishes ordered by the standards of other stores

One day, Xiao Li and other people went to a restaurant to eat, and just after entering the restaurant, they shouted for a fish head with chopped pepper. But after a few bites, these guests shouted in the hall and asked the chef to make an authentic fish head with chopped pepper for them again.

Case 2: Complaining about paying the bill without looking at the price when ordering food

One day, Xiao Zhao invited friends from afar to dinner. When the waiter handed the menu and asked how to order food, they did not look at the menu, but ordered several dishes based on their understanding of some dishes, and the whole dining process was full of pleasant atmosphere.

But when they checked out, they had an argument with the cashier. In case of no argument, they complained about the bad food (in fact, they wanted to make a discount).

handling method:

in the former, because the customer has recognized the dish he once ate in other people's homes, he will think that all the fish heads with chopped peppers in the restaurant taste the same.

if a guest doesn't feel that the effect he expected after eating the fish head with chopped pepper, he will say: you can't make the fish head well. In the face of this situation, you can explain the characteristics of your dishes to customers in time.

Precautions:

Try not to imitate the dishes you can't imitate. If you want to imitate other people's dishes, you can repackage their names to highlight your own characteristics; You can also inform customers in advance and indicate their characteristics on the menu; Or inform the waiter, when ordering, tell him clearly: this is our new dish, and it has not been officially promoted. Please try it first.

In this way, the customer will feel respected. Even if he is not satisfied with the food, he will patiently put forward his own views, hoping to have a satisfactory taste next time.